The story of Nikos Cakes and Vanilla Lounge is, in many ways, the story of the Greek Australian community itself.
Built by migrant parents who arrived with little more than determination, family, and a willingness to work hard, both businesses grew from humble beginnings into community institutions. Decades later, their children face a challenge every bit as difficult as building the business itself: how do you pass it on without tearing the family apart?
That question was at the heart of a Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HACCI) event at Vanilla Lounge’s The Terrace on Thursday, June 11.
Chaired by HACCI Victoria Board Chair Fotini Kypraios, the event brought together Yianni Poupouzas of Nikos Cakes and Tia Tsonis of Vanilla Lounge for a candid conversation about succession, family politics, money, conflict, and legacy.
‘We bathed our kids together’
The connection between the two families goes back decades. Nikos Cakes matriarch Tess Poupouzas recalled the years when both families were juggling young children while trying to establish themselves. A κουμπαριά (godparent relationship) developed, and the children became godbrothers and godsisters.
“The kids used to take baths together,” she laughed.
While Yianni’s family lived in Templestowe and Tia’s in Sandringham, they were constantly in and out of each other’s homes. Alongside the children, the businesses grew, intertwined.
“With family businesses, you just grow up in it,” Yianni said. “It becomes part of your everyday life.”
His childhood memories involve being bundled into the car on Saturdays and taken to work with his parents, beginning a journey from box-folder and dishwasher to manager and eventual business leader.
For Tia, business was equally inseparable from family life.
“I remember sitting in the first booth at The Medallion folding boxes,” she said. Business conversations happened around the dinner table, in the car, and within earshot of the children. “You learn that it’s about responsibility.”
The danger of trends
One of the night’s most revealing stories came from Yianni’s attempt to modernise Nikos Cakes after expanding into Fairfield. Like many businesses, the family believed they needed to become more contemporary, and traditional Greek products made way for trendier offerings. It was a flop.
“A lot of people think relevance means being on trend all the time and sort of chasing your tail,” Yianni said, adding that customers weren’t looking for another fashionable café, they wanted Nikos Cakes. The lesson, learnt the hard way, was simple: authenticity matters. “Just keep that train on the tracks,” he said.
Tia agreed. “How do you stay relevant in hospitality? Forget TikTok. Forget Instagram. Forget the socials. Focus on your brand and your people. Focus on giving the best service and the best of yourself that you can.”
She pointed to Eaton Mall itself as proof. “Why are people still coming to Eaton Mall? What draws people back to Nikos Cakes, to Vanilla, to Meat Me, to Orexi, to Caffe Greco, to Melissa? It’s our hospitality. That’s how we stay relevant. You do what you do best, and you grow through that.”
Conversations families avoid
For all the discussion about lawyers, accountants, and structures, both speakers agreed that succession usually succeeds or fails because of communication.
“A lot of the challenges faced by families in business boil down to communication, or very bad communication, and the setting of expectations,” Ms Kypraios observed.
“Silence doesn’t always mean harmony,” Yianni said, noting that families often avoid difficult conversations about ownership, responsibility, and succession until tensions have already formed. “If you see conflict on the horizon, you’re probably too late.”
For the Poupouzas family, the need for succession planning became more urgent as the next generation started families of their own.
“What prompted our need for succession planning and looking toward the future was our growing families,” Yianni said.
“Whilst we were growing kids under mum and dad’s umbrella, they looked after us, we were fine. But once we started getting married things shifted a little bit, and then things majorly changed when we started having children. We had a greater need to support ourselves.”
The discussion inevitably turned to the often-taboo topic of money. “When it comes to business, you need to remove the family element and ask what each person contributes and what that is worth,” Yianni said.
At Nikos Cakes, family members are paid according to their contribution. At Vanilla, the family eventually adopted an equal partnership structure. While they chose different paths, both families arrived at the same lesson: clarity prevents resentment.
This prompted an audience member to ask: do you ever sacrifice the best business decision to preserve family harmony? “It’s definitely a democracy,” Tia replied.
Nobody fights like family
The biggest laughs of the evening came when the conversation turned to family conflict.
“We are at each other’s throats all the time,” Yianni admitted. “I can sit up here and pretend we’re the perfect family and it was rosy and amazing. It’s not the truth. We disagree quite animatedly. When we disagree, we disagree colourfully.”
Anyone raised in a Greek family immediately understood. Yet, somehow, the disagreements strengthen rather than weaken the business. The secret, according to Tia, is to “put the little ego at the door and really go into the pursuit of what is right for the business.”
More than cakes and coffee
Speaking of legacy, Tia reflected on growing up in a different era.
“The ’80s and the ’90s were very simple,” she said. “Those values and those feelings of being together as a family and working together as a family had a different meaning by the time we got to adulthood. We sort of grew in the business when it was a simple time.”
Whether future generations will embrace hospitality in the same way remains uncertain. “I don’t know if all of our children would be able to navigate the world of hospitality,” she admitted.
Ms Kypraios referenced a well-known family business saying: “Generation one builds the business, generation two grows the business, and generation three destroys it, because cousins are different to siblings.”
Neither family intends to let that happen.
The evening’s most emotional moment came when Tia recalled her late father, Thanasis Spanos, and the values he left behind. “Our love for our dad and our mum gives us wings every day.”
She remembered the word her father repeated throughout his life: Dynami. Strength. Or, as he liked to explain it to Australians, power. “He would always say, ‘Dynami. Don’t worry. Don’t have fear.'” In fact, those were among the last words he spoke to her before leaving for the hospital.
It is the same spirit that built Nikos Cakes and Vanilla Lounge. And if Thursday night’s conversation proved anything, it is this: succession is not just about ownership or structure, it is about protecting what was built together, before it gets lost between generations.
*All photos copyright The Greek Herald / Mary Sinanidis
